Chana dal /Chanaga bedala Payasam

Recently I have been craving to eat sweet; I was really not in the mood to eat a cookie or a cake. I just craved for something home made and something my mom used to make for us as kids. So, I decided to make chana dal payasam (we call it chanaga bedala payasam), one of my favorites. It can be enjoyed either hot or cold. The payasam is a combination of chana dal, sabudan cooked with milk in jaggery syrup. The thickness for the payasam comes from the cashew and coconut paste. A very simple but ultimate satisfying dessert.

There were few reasons I wanted to make this sweet -
It’s been almost four months I started blogging,
To satisfy my sweet tooth I was craving for and
Offering as naivedyam for the god.

Recipe:

Chana dal (pachi chanaga pappu) – 1 cup
Sago (sabudan, sabiyamu) – 1/4th cup
Jaggery- 1cup
Milk- 3 ½ cups
Water- 3 cups
Cardamom -2 (crushed)

To Grind:
Whole Cashews – 7
Grated fresh coconut – 2 to 3 tbsps (I used frozen coconut, I just put it in the microwave for 30 seconds for it to become soft)

For tempering:
Ghee- 2 tsps
Few cashews and raisins.

Cook chana dal with one cup of water in the pressure cooker. Make sure the dal still holds its shape, so its very important not to over cook it.

In a small vessel put the sabudan with one cup of water and cook in low heat for about seven minutes or until the sabudan is cooked through. Keep it on side.

In a mixer grind the cashew and coconut with half cup of milk.

In a small pan add the ghee and fry the cashew and raisins till golden brown.

Now take a vessel, add one cup of water with the jaggery and boil till the jaggery melts. Then add the cooked sabudan, mix and add the cashew-coconut paste with 3 cups of milk. Cook all these in medium heat for about ten minutes.

At this point add the cooked chana dal (with the water) and boil the whole thing in low heat for another ten minutes. At the end add the cardamom powder and fried cashew and raisins.

Let it sit for few minutes, offer as naivedyam to the god and enjoy this payasam with your loved once.

Please note that the payasam gets thicker after it’s cooked for couple of hours.

Recipe: amma

Goodies from India

These are some of the goodies my inlaws sent it from India. We really enjoyed them all, they were so yummy.

Sorry guys, i didn’t mean to make you envious. Just felt like sharing these pictures with you all.

Potato Kurma

Last weekend my friend Sandhya made this potato kurma, we ate the kurma with coconut pulav. We used pretty much the same ingredients we used for pulav. So, it was easy prepping the ingredients. I really liked the flavor of the spices and yogurt together. A nice compliment for a rich coconut pulav.

Potato kurma can also be eaten with chapathi, puri, paratha and I guess even dosa.

This is my entry to Vaishali’s Jihva for Potato.

Recipe:

• Small white baby potato- 6 (you can use any kind of potato, depending
upon the size adjust the number of potatoes you need)
• Medium onion- 1
• Green chilies- 2
• Medium tomatoes – 2 to 3
• Ginger garlic paste- ½ tsp
• Garam masala- 1/4th to ½ tsp
• Cloves- 2
• Cardamom- 2
• Whole black pepper- 4
• ½ inch cinnamon stick
• Small bay leaves- 2
• Yogurt- ½ cup
• coriander leaves (chopped finely)

I put my potatoes in a corning bowl, cover it with a plate and cook it in microwave till its half done. It took about four minutes for my potatoes to be half way done in the microwave. I generally do this because it significantly reduces the cooking time. Then peel them and cut to small pieces.

Now take a pot add few teaspoons of oil, bay leaves, cinnamon stick, cloves, cardamom and black pepper. Fry for few seconds then add the green chili, onion and cook till the onion becomes soft. Now add the ginger garlic paste. After a minute add the tomato and cook till they become nice and soft.

Now add the potato with garam masala and salt. Cook till the potato becomes soft and the whole mixture becomes little thick. This takes about ten minutes, at this point stir in the yogurt (wisk it before adding) with coriander leaves. Let it simmer for another five minutes and turn the stove off. Taste and re-season accordingly.

Recipe: Sandhya

Coconut Pulav

My best friend Sandhya visited me this weekend from Seattle. After moving to U.S we have been constantly talking via phone, but we never met. After a span of seven years, she made the move to visit me. We are friends since our college days in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh. We were very happy to see each other after such a long time. Though the journey was a rollercoaster (she spent about 17 hrs traveling because of the bad weather in Philly), we had such a good time and the three days went by so fast.

Instead of me cooking for her, she ended up handling my kitchen. She made this Coconut pulav, which was so good in taste and flavor that I am totally addicted to it now.

To go with the Coconut pulav Sandhya made Potato kurma. Kurma was just the perfect match made for this scrumptious pulav.

Coconut Pulav Recipe:
(Serves 3 to 4 people)

• Basmati Rice- 2 cups
• Coconut milk- 2cups
• Water- 1 1/4 cups
• A big bunch of mint and coriander leaves (chopped finely)
• Green chilies- 4
• Medium tomatoes – 3
• Cloves- 5
• Cardamom- 4 to 5
• Whole Black pepper- 7
• ½ inch cinnamon stick
• Small bay leaves- 6
• Ginger garlic paste- 1tsp
• Onion- 1

Soak the basmati rice in water for 30 minutes.

In a pot put few teaspoons of oil, add the cloves, cardamom, black pepper, cinnamon stick and bay leaves. Fry for few seconds then add the green chillie and onion and cook till the onion becomes soft. Now add the ginger garlic paste. After a minute add the tomato and cook till they become nice and soft.

Add the chopped mint, cilantro and cook for couple of minutes. Now add the rice and cook for five minutes, so that the rice can absorb the flavors of all the spices. Then add the coconut milk with water and salt and let it come to a boil.

At this point you can finish cooking the pulav in the same pan or you can transfer the whole thing to a rice cooker and finish the cooking in there.

We finished our pulav in a rice cooker. I prefer it this way, I just feel this way I don’t have to keep an eye on pulav while cooking.

Sandhya generally finish cooking her pulav in the same pan. (Instead of 1 1/4 cups of water she adds 2 cups of water)

Once the pulav is done, let it sit for few minutes before serving.

Enjoy this pulav with the potato kurma.
( will be posting the recipe for potato kurma soon)

Thank you Sandhya for such a great recipe.

Recipe: Sandhya

Strawberry’s ~ Happy Valentines Day

When you think of February, the one thing which strikes you is the Valentines Day.
Valentines Day is very important day for the people who are in love! It’s the day to celebrate, tell some one how much you love and care for them, have a romantic meal with your love and share gifts. (Who wouldn’t want that?)

Well some may think do we need a special day to tell some one you love. May be
not….But if you think about it, with so much destruction going on around this world, isn’t it nice to have days like these where all you can think about is love and spend some quality time with your loved ones. Don’t you agree with me…?

Few years back right around this time, me and venkatesh got engaged. So, this time is always special for me. Gifts and food play a very important part of Valentines Day. Roses are sold like crazy on this day; all those lovers out there know how much a bunch of red roses costs them on this day. But when it comes to food, there is nothing which can beat chocolate, one of my favorites and coming to fruits, I consider strawberry as the king of romantic fruit.

So, today I want to share this picture of fresh sweet strawberry’s from our local farm to all those people who are in love.

A Happy Valentines Day!

Steamed Asparagus

If you are looking for a vegetable which can give you tons of nutrional values, then Asparagus is one of them. As a matter of fact, “any kind of greens are good for health”. This is a popular quotation used by my doctor husband. It is also a leading supplier among vegetables of folic acid, which is necessary for blood cell formation, growth and prevention of liver disease.

Low in calories, no fat or cholesterol and a good source of potassium, fibre and vitamin B6. So, having so many nutrional values you cannot avoid eating this vegetable. I know it can be pricy at times, but sometimes you can’t put a tag for your health! Can you….!

While choosing the asparagus, pick the ones which are fresh and tender. Before cooking, trim them by cutting an inch in the bottom. That part is pretty hard and tough to eat.

I try not cooking them in boiling water, because the water takes away all the nutrients. So, i prefer cooking them in microwave.I keep it very simple, by just cooking my asparagus with some salt and crushed pepper. I usually put them in a corning plate and cover with another plate.

It doesn’t need too much cooking, may be three minutes should do it. At the end i sprinkle with just little bit of lemon juice. You can jazz it up with some grated parmesan cheese on the top.

The steamed asparagus can be enjoyed just like that or with some kind of dip ( I used spicy Hummus today). I also had some baby carrot and cucumbers to go with it. It was indeed a perfect healthy snack to munch on a saturday evening.

Asparagus, baby carrot and cucumbers with a spicy hummus dip

Asparagus

Sunnundalu (Urad dal laddoo)~ Baby shower

Sunnundalu is a very classic Andhra sweet. I am not sure if people from other states actually do it. When I told some of my friends about this sweet, they were not aware of it. Sunnundalu are made of urad dal (yup! its urad dal). Urad dal, sugar and ghee are the only three ingredients you need to make this sweet.

From my childhood, this sweet has always been my favorite. It’s been a while I ate these. Not just this particular sweet, in general I haven’t been eating sweets that much for quite sometime now. That’s the reason I haven’t blogged too many sweets.

When i was a kid, my mom used to make these often. Kids and also the pregnant women are often given this sweet. I guess the reason is it has dal (which gives protein) and ghee which has the fat content is good for the growth of the fetus and the growing kids.

We have a baby shower this weekend and I wanted to make some sweet which symbolizes the baby shower. Generally in Andhra, especially in Nellore we make either salibindi (made of rice flour and sugar) or sunnundalu for baby shower (Srimantham in telugu). I have no idea how to make the first one, so went with the later one. And to tell you the truth, this being one of my favorites I actually felt like eating sunnundalu. So it was indeed a perfect timing to make some.

Urad dal, ghee and sugar

Recipe:

(makes about 17 med laddoos)

• Urad dal – 2 cups
• Sugar – 1 ¼ cup
• Ghee – ¾ th cup
• Cardamom-2 (optional)

Roast the urad dal in a low heat till golden brown. Stir continuously, it takes about 20 minutes. (My hand did hurt because of the continuous stirring, but was worth it). Let cool of completely.

Mean while, melt the ghee and let this cool also.

Now take the roasted urad dal and grind it to a smooth powder using a mixer or a food processor. (First I used the mixer, some how it wasn’t doing the job. So, I switched to the food processor). Make sure it’s nice and smooth. It’s very important that the mixture is smooth and super fine. Keep it a side.

Now add the sugar and grind it to a fine powder. Now return the urad dal mixture to the food processor and grind again. This helps the sugar and the urad dal mixture to incorporate well. At this point you can also add some crushed cardamom.

Remove this mixture to a skillet; little by little add the melted ghee till you get a consistency where you can mold them in the form of laddoo.

Recipe: amma